Remember the Velveeta cheese days ! Garlic soaked minnows ! Nitro green nightcrawlers ! WD 40 !
Dr. Juice ! Banjo Minnows ! Light up Lures !
A lot of crazy stuff that actually caught some fish when used. Just wondering what's the strangest bait or lure you caught fish on or seen caught on !
 
I caught a 12lb. Steelhead out of the Niagara River from shore on a piece of artificial rubber skein. I had my doubts when I bought a pack.........I was totally amazed that it worked. Never got another.....LOL  

capt.  Back in the day, we actually caught more than a few Kings & Browns in N.Y. on Green rubber skein. My weirdest, was once I caught a nice Walleye on a piece of sponge that was dipped In Cod Liver Oil. I was fishing 10 mile creek for Channels at the time. I got plenty of Catfish on that ,but only ever got 1 walleye on it.   sam

I caught a trout once with a tiny bb size split shot on. Pushed it all the way to the hook and jigged it. one day forgot the bait so i had donuts and caught some trout. Saw some neat stuff on the net.. An old iphone, a guy used the tab to open a beer can (to catch a salmon), also saw some weird looking flys catching some musky,  cant forget the guy who used the wrench.

I take a razor blade and slice balloons into micro strips and put on micro ice jigs when things get tough. A size 16 Russian jig has caught several 12-14 inch crappie and 9 inch gills.  Many decades ago beef spleen soaked in red food dye caught many lunker pay lake trout along Velveeta cheese.lol
 
 
 

  Did not actually catch this fish, it however gave a thrill. Last winter while fishing on the south pier P.I. bay for Ling- Burbot I had one of those pesky Mudpuppies on.  As I was reeling in a hog Walleye grabbed it.  I never got a hook in the Eye but it hung on for a bit of a fight. When it got to the surface someone put a bright light on it we all saw it was a big Eye. It then took a big run and let go.  Had the net been ready the outcome would have been different. That Eye tore up that Mudpuppy but the Mudpuppy had swallowed the hook.
  You never know what lies at the bottom of Gilligan's Pond!
 

Velvetta cheese was the trout go to when we were kids. Would cut the whole block up into small squares the night before and put it into small ziplock bags and freeze it for the next day. Just put a piece on the hook and you were good to go. Also watched someone use red gum to catch trout.

Capt. I once caught, a real fish......... honest

I can remember fishing one very hot summer day with a buddy of mine at Shenango Reservoir.  Now, technically we WERE there to catch fish, but we also had a couple of bottles of Boones Farm Apple wine with us. (probably from the afore mentioned Milk Barn)    To carry out the premise of fishing while we imbibing we each threw a line out  Mine happened to have a purple rooster tail on it.  Nothing else, just a purple rooster tail.  After sitting on the bottom for probably an hour or so I decided to crank the rooster tail back in only to be met with a heavy weight and great resistance.  After an epic struggle, or perhaps the wine made it epic, I dragged in a carp that probably went around ten pounds.  The plain, purple, rooster tail, all the way down in it's gullet.  Now what would have made that carp eat the rooster tail and then just sit on the bottom of the lake til I picked up my pole only God knows.  But, it was, and still is one of the oddest catches I have ever made.

The weirdest this I've caught fish on, probably an unbaited size 8 baitholder hook on a snap swivel, Bluegill go nuts for shiny snap swivels!

Ref, speaking of the old Velvetta Cheese days, I remember being on Shenango River for an opening day of Trout years ago. There were two younger guys fishing next to each other both probably around 12 years old.
The one kid that was a little on the chunky side says to his buddy " hey Jimmy you got any cheese left for bait" ?
His buddy says yea I do, what happened to all of yours ?
His friend says " I ate it all this morning " !   LMAO !